Pictures of the DHL plane hit by a missle / Amazing Airbus Missle Strike Recovery | FerrariChat

Pictures of the DHL plane hit by a missle / Amazing Airbus Missle Strike Recovery

Discussion in 'Other Off Topic Forum' started by ART360, Dec 3, 2003.

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  1. ART360

    ART360 Guest

    I got this from a friend:


    This is the plane that was hit near Baghdad. I work with someone
    who's wife works for Ead's who is owned by Air Bus.

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    Subject: Testimony to an A300B4-DHL IRAQ

    To those of you who are wondering what happened to the DHL A300B4
    coming out of Baghdad last Saturday, take a look.
    Aircraft was hit at 8000 FT, lost ALL hydraulics and therefore had no
    flight controls, actually did a missed approach using only
    engine thrust and eventually (after about 16mins) landed heavily on
    runway 33L at Baghdad. This was fortunate because with no
    steering the aircraft veered of the runway to the left, had they landed
    on 33R veering to the left would have taken them straight into
    the fire station.
    The aircraft then traveled about 600 meters through soft sand taking
    out a razor wire fence in the process, see LH engine pic, and
    came to rest almost at the bottom of the sloping area between the
    runway and a taxi way.
    All three crew evacuated safely down the second slide, the first one
    tore on the razor wire.
    I flew in with a team on Tuesday in one of our Metros and some special
    equipment we'd had made locally in Bahrain and some
    provided by Airbus. Using a USAF D9 Caterpillar pulling a 100 meter
    cable fitted to the back end of each bogie and a nice new
    aircraft push back tug with a towbar on the nose gear, we were able to
    remove the aircraft just on dusk on Tuesday night and towed
    it to an Iraqi Airways graveyard on one side of the terminal.
    We stayed overnight in the USAF camp on the airport and went back to
    the
    aircraft on Wednesday morning to allow the insurance
    survey to be completed and then secure the aircraft.
    Basically, LH engine rotates in a fashion, has ingested lots of razor
    wire and is knackered. RH engine has seized, probably from
    ingesting loads of sand at maximum reverse thrust and inlet cowl has
    unacceptable lip damage, probably from hitting the razor
    wire fence posts.
    The No 8 axle appears to be cracked as the wheel sits at an odd angle.
    The bulk of the damage is the LH wing. About 3 meters of rear spar is
    missing in front of the outboard flap, the wing has bulged
    upwards and downwards where the initial explosion appears to have
    occurred, one O/B flap track is hanging in the breeze and one
    has a small piece of flap still attached, the rest of the flap is
    nonexistent. The pics show the huge crack that has occurred to the
    rear spar inboard of where the spar has burnt away, possibly from loads
    on the wing during the landing process. The front spar
    appears to be intact.
    The point of entry pics show where a projectile entered Tank 1A, which
    was full of fuel, and, after it ignited, proceeded to burn
    away at the spar. The fuel tank ribs in the area directly in front of
    the O/B flap are burnt almost 50% through.
    The crew obviously did a fantastic job in getting the aircraft back on
    to the ground and one can only assume that it was most
    fortunate that they were not aware of the state of the wing as they
    could not see it from the cockpit.
    It also says a lot for the structure of the aircraft that it withstood
    the impact of the (whatever is finally determined to have hit it).
    I'm sure there will be lots of other photos and videos flying around
    the net, but at least these ones are genuine.
    The worst part for us was the airport was shut down on Wednesday and we
    had to be driven in an armour-plated Landcruiser Troop
    Carrier from Baghdad to Balad, 60 miles to the north, from where we
    flew back to Bahrain in our Metro again.
     
  2. MarkPDX

    MarkPDX F1 World Champ
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  3. MarkPDX

    MarkPDX F1 World Champ
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  4. MarkPDX

    MarkPDX F1 World Champ
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  5. MarkPDX

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  6. MarkPDX

    MarkPDX F1 World Champ
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    .........
     
  7. MarkPDX

    MarkPDX F1 World Champ
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  8. MarkPDX

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  9. TimN88

    TimN88 F1 Veteran

    Jun 12, 2001
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    Wow, thats crazy. When did that happen? I didnt even hear about that on the news yet.
     
  10. MarkPDX

    MarkPDX F1 World Champ
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    23 November

    .
     
  11. MarkPDX

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  12. MarkPDX

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  13. TCM

    TCM Formula Junior

    Nov 10, 2003
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    Tyngsborough, MA
    Wow, thanks for sharing. It is a miracle no one was hurt/killed. I am no aviator but I would assume flight manuevers became extremely difficult when that wing and hydraulics were hit.
     
  14. MarkPDX

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  15. MarkPDX

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  16. MarkPDX

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  17. MarkPDX

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  18. Burnout

    Burnout Formula Junior

    Nov 3, 2003
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    Anyone know a link to that video!?
     
  19. WJHMH

    WJHMH Two Time F1 World Champ
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    Geez, more to this story here than what I've seen on CNN. Thanks Art for sharing your E mail & pics.
     
  20. Alxlee

    Alxlee F1 Rookie

    Apr 8, 2002
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    Alex Lee
    There's a small blurb about it in this week's Newsweek. They put it in to highlight the risk Bush took flying into Iraq.
     
  21. jordan747_400

    jordan747_400 F1 Veteran
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    Dec 9, 2002
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    Thanks for sharing Art and Mark. I saw hte pictures a few days ago on airliners.net but forgot to mention them here. You know, I have never liked Airbus as much as Boeing, but this accident is a testiment to the A300's design and most importantly, the pilots skills. It takes QUITE a pilot to fly a plane that large with thrust alone. I only know of a few successful (or semisuccessful) landings in similar conditions with no flight controls: this one recently, the United DC-10 several years back, and a few more.
     
  22. wax

    wax Five Time F1 World Champ
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    Surprised some missed this particular news. Whenever something/anything happens with a plane of these proportions, I'm always amazed at how calm pilots are when communicating information post-incident, yet still piloting and talking like they're giving the local farm report.

    "Hit by missile, we're on fire, (Yawn) Over."
    'Roger that.'
    "Losing altitude, wing appears ready to fall off. Over."
    'Roger. Over.'
    "Landing in (Yawn) Hostile Territory. O(Yawn)ver"
    'Roger...'
     
  23. thecarreaper

    thecarreaper F1 World Champ
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    WAX....... LMAO .......i have had SEVERAL under the table job offers to go " OVER THERE" and work on this and that as a aircraft tech. i have several very close friends who are there now..... you would not believe the stuff that is going on over there that is not reported or not " allowed" to be reported to the american public and the world. its better we dont know somethings..... this way we can sleep well at night.... ( i dont ) !!!!!! great thread!!!!!!!
     
  24. WILLIAM H

    WILLIAM H Three Time F1 World Champ

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    Fooking Camel Humpers
     
  25. racedecknc

    racedecknc Karting

    Nov 24, 2003
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    Ed
    Yeah, those DHL guys get the "balls of steel" award for the week.

    Ed
     

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